Page 82 of Illicit Illustration

“I thought the reason was obvious, kitten. All of it—every text and every time I pushed my way into helping with your commissions—was because I haven’t been able to get you out of my head for months.”

The tone of his voice made it seem like he was annoyed by the whole situation, but his gaze was doing funny things to my stomach that should have had me running in the opposite direction.

“I did it because I love you, Haz, and I was prepared to do just about anything to make you mine.”

Reid

As soon as thewords were out of my mouth, I suddenly wanted to do what Hazel had done and go hide in the bathroom. Because I was not prepared for the response I got the first time I told a woman I was in love with her.

“Was? You’re not prepared to do that anymore?” Hazel asked, and that damn sass bleeding into her tone made me want to throw her over my shoulder and cart her off to my bed to shower her in apology kisses.

I hadn’t expected my brave girl to embrace her fire and chase me down. I honestly thought that earlier in Hudson’s office might be the closest that I ever got to her again. That she’d double down on avoiding me and I’d be forced to greedily catch glimpses of her that never quite satisfied the craving that ran through my veins.

When I didn’t respond right away, she narrowed her eyes and propped her hands on her hips, stepping in until her chest was almost brushing mine. It was the worst kind of torture, being this close and knowing I shouldn’t touch.

“So, you not only lied to me…you manipulated me…you toyed with my feelings and made it nearly impossible to focus on anything else the last few weeks, and now you’re just going to walk away?”

Her hand flattened against my chest, my heart thudding against her cold palm. It physically ached not to touch her, but as the pink blush I craved stained her cheekbones, I knew I was about to face the wrath of a very pissed off Hazel Rivera.

“I guess I never realized that for someone who’s gotten so much of it you were such a fucking pussy,” she seethed, pushing her hand against my chest until she was forcing me backward into my apartment. She punctuated each word with another push until the back of my legs hit the edge of my leather couch. “That as soon as things got complicated, the man who spent hours talking to me and encouraging me to embrace who I was over the last few weeks would retreat like a goddamned coward.”

“Haz, I…”

“Don’t fucking interrupt me,” she snapped, bringing both hands up and shoving my chest hard enough that I was forced to sit down. “Because I’m not even close to being done.”

I’d seen her mad before, but it’d never been aimed at me. And I knew it shouldn’t turn me on, but I couldn’t look away as she towered over me, living up to my nickname for her. My kitten had brought out the claws, and even if I got scratched, I’d let her take every ounce of frustration out on me because I deserved it.

“I get your MO is to hit it and quit it. And that you’ve never spent more time focusing on a woman than it took to get in her pants and then run in the other direction because clearly feelings are a hard concept for you to grasp.” The flush that crept across her chest and shoulders when she was aroused apparently also appeared when Hazel was pissed, and my eyes were transfixed as she yelled at me. “But if you think you’re going to get away with running away from me with a half-assed apology and spouting off some bullshit line about loving me, then you don’t really know me at all.”

“I…”

“Nope,” she said, holding her hand out to stop me from talking. I closed my mouth and nodded for her to continue. “So, you have two options right now, Reid Harding. Are you listening?”

I nodded, balling my hands into fists so I didn’t succumb to the urge to haul her into my lap.

“You can choose to hide from what you did, and we’ll go back to how things were after the accident—with me pretending you don’t exist. And this time I really will hate you.”

Her voice faltered on the last two words and her lip quivered, but my fiery girl took a deep breath and kept going.

“Or you can take your own advice and be brave. And you can mean it when you apologize. Promise me you will never lie to me ever again—especially not under the bullshit excuse of it being for my own good.Provethat you love me, and that you’re willing to be the man you showed me you can be and fight for me. Because I—”

But I didn’t give her the opportunity to finish what she was going to say, because I couldn’t hold back any longer. I surged up from the couch and grasped the sides of her face.

My lips covered hers, my heart hammering in my chest when she didn’t initially respond. But then her hands wrapped around my neck, her fingers digging into the hair on the back of my head and pulling me closer while her tongue plunged into my mouth.

Kissing Hazel was everything I thought it’d be…but also so much more. Her lips were soft and tasted like the amaretto I knew she liked to drink when she was nervous. I expected her to be timid, but she didn’t hold back one bit. She was the strong girl—woman—who’d been hiding under my nose for years that I never expected needing like I did right now. I’d never felt this kind of desperation before, the need to pull someone close and melt into them.

“Fuck, kitten. I missed you,” I whispered into her mouth when our lips broke apart. “I’m so sorry.”

“Good, you should be,” she growled, her raspy voice doing things that made it hard to hide how much I wanted her beneath the flimsy plaid pants I was wearing. When she pushed up on her toes and pressed her body close to mine, there was no disguising her effect on me. But I didn’t want to do anything to scare her. Although I should have known better when she noticed my hesitation to push things too far and took things into her own tiny hands, reaching down to cup the front of my pants and squeezing. “What are you going to do to make it up to me?”

“Fuck,” I grunted as her thumb rubbed against my piercing suggestively.

“That sounds like a good start,” she teased, pressing against my chest until I fell back onto the couch. Then she shocked the shit out of me by hiking up her dress and climbing into my lap, her hands framing my face before she slanted her mouth over mine and stole not only my breath, but my heart, too.

Instinct took over, and she ground into me as she devoured my mouth, whimpering as my desperate cock pressed against her through a few thin layers of fabric. She kissed me until I was drunk on her, panting when she pulled away a few moments later and gathered the hem of her dress to yank it over her head.

“God, you’re gorgeous,” I murmured, leaning in to drag my lips across her soft, flushed skin, apologizing to her with kisses and nips that had her gasping and grinding against me in a way that threatened to make me embarrass myself.

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